Businesses owe council almost £3m for rates
BUSINESSES in HD1 – parts of Huddersfield including the town centre – are in debt to Kirklees Council to the tune of almost £3m.
A Freedom of Information (FoI) request to Kirklees Council has revealed the shocking business rates debt figure – while commercial rent arrears of more than £269,000 are owed by businesses in the same postcode.
Clr Bernard McGuin (Con, Almondbury) spoke out over the figures, saying: “It shocks me that they are so much in arrears. I don’t know what can be done about it.
“And the town centre is dying off.”
In its FoI response the council noted these figures are a snapshot in time and cover all cases at various stages of recovery action.
Businessman Ian Snowball, a former Hitachi executive, who runs The Showtime bar and who is looking to open The Colosseum in Huddersfield town centre, said: “These are incredible figures.
“Everyone talks about rates being high and how they are crippling businesses both big and small but few can actually relate to it in the real world. To put it into perspective, we are a family business. The rates you would pay on our two buildings, The Colosseum and Showtime, in just one year, could buy you a house in cash in Huddersfield.
“As everyone knows, the world is changing fast and the internet now allows anyone to set up a business online without having to shell out on fixtures, fittings, rent and rates for a town centre retail unit; that creates a huge disparity in running costs between a start-up online and a start-up in the town centre – some savvy online sellers don’t even hold stock and ship direct from source.
“The Government knows this but because commercial rates generate such a huge revenue stream there will be a bean counter somewhere watching all these businesses fail and the government will not do anything substantial until the balance tips too far, that will be too late for Huddersfield town’s economy.
“The rescue is needed now and it must be substantial before it is too late.”
And there was more grim news for traders in Huddersfield town centre as figures reveal overall footfall mid-week is down across the board 30 per cent over the five years between 2015-19.
Byram Street and Cross Church street are down a massive 35pc and 40pc respectively on Saturdays.
This year alone non-market day footfall has dropped overall by an astounding 15pc.
Weekday traffic by Primark on New Street is down between 17pc and 30pc depending on the day.
These figures were collated in April 2019 before Marks & Spencer, which was situated in the middle of Huddersfield town centre for decades, shut.
Anecdotally, traders claim that footfall fell drastically after this.
Even Kingsgate reports footfall down over 15pc midweek.
On the business rate arrears, a Kirklees Council spokesman said: “The council has a good record of taking strong recovery action to make sure ratepayers and leaseholders who should pay, do so.
“The arrears figures demonstrate how important it is for every business to pay their rates and rent to help fund essential council services. We anticipate that over the fullness of time, we will recover up to 98.5pc of all business rates charged.”